Nigeria’s Sylvester Emanuel has defeated Klegou Alexis (7) of Benin Republic (6) 6-7, 6-1, 7-6 (1) to breeze into the quarter finals of the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship.
Playing in the longest match of the tournament so far (3hours 15mins), the former Ikoyi Tennis Masters champion gave Nigerians a lot to cheer about as he ensured that two local stars qualified for the quarter final of the ITF-certified tournament.
Tension was sky high at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club after he lost the first set of the encounter when people thought he should have won, but he made up for this by thrashing the number seven seed 6-1 in the second set, taking the game to the final set.
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The final set was even more frantic as everyone at the stand was put on the seats’ edges as both opponents played their hearts out to ensure the victory went their way.
After a three-hour battle, however, Nigerians were full of cheers for their man as Sylvester put smiles on the face of everyone watching.
“It was a well-deserved victory for Major today, he played like a real champion that he is. Hopefully, he can go all the way and make Nigerians proud,” one of those watching from the stands told our correspondent after the pulsating encounter.
With this result, Clifford Enosoregbe are the only Nigerians remaining in the tournament as the former Nigerian number one player also created an unlikely upset by beating Smola Maciej from Poland in three sets of 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-2 to set up an encounter with Mukund Sasi Kumar, the number four seed from India.
Sylvester, still in the doubles event with Duncan Mugabe, will play the Polish pair of Drzewiecki, Karol and Smola, Maciej after his singles quarter final against third seed Mamoun Karim-Mohammed from Egypt.